Putin accused of role in ex-spy Litvinenko killing

Friday January 22 2016

Marina Litvinenko (left), widow of Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko, and her son Anatoly Litvinenko, arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on Janurary 21, 2016. A British inquiry in London revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “probably approved” the killing of ex-spy Litvinenko. PHOTO | JUSTIN TALLIS | AFP

In Summary

Mr Litvinenko, a prominent Kremlin critic, died in 2006 aged 43, three weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium at an upmarket London hotel.

Mr Andrei Lugovoi and Mr Dmitri Kovtun, two Russians identified as prime suspects by British police, probably carried out the poisoning under the instruction of Russian security services, the inquiry said.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s office called the findings “extremely disturbing” but the government did not announce sanctions in response, instead summoning Moscow’s ambassador to London for talks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “probably approved” the killing of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, a British inquiry into his agonising death by radiation poisoning found on Thursday.

Mr Litvinenko, a prominent Kremlin critic, died in 2006 aged 43, three weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium at an upmarket London hotel.

Mr Andrei Lugovoi and Mr Dmitri Kovtun, two Russians identified as prime suspects by British police, probably carried out the poisoning under the instruction of Russian security services, the inquiry said.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s office called the findings “extremely disturbing” but the government did not announce sanctions in response, instead summoning Moscow’s ambassador to London for talks.

It did, however, impose asset freezes on the two alleged perpetrators named by the inquiry.

“We had no reason to expect that the final findings of the politically motivated and extremely non-transparent process would suddenly become objective and unbiased,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

Mr Lugovoi, now a far-right, pro-Putin lawmaker in Russia, described it as “absurd”.

Judge Robert Owen, the inquiry’s chairman, said he was “sure” that Mr Lugovoi and Kovtun placed polonium-210 in the teapot at the Millennium Hotel’s Pine Bar, where they met Litvinenko on November 1, 2006.

“The FSB operation to kill Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Nikolai Patrushev and also by President Putin,” the report said.